My friend has recently noticed that when they breathe it's not one long continuous breath, but a lot of shorter breathes with a tiny pause between each one - both on inhale and exhale. My friend is referring to it as stutter breath and I've been thinking of it as choppy breathing. It is not what I usually think of as the sobbing breath, that usually occurrs when you've been crying for a while - in my case, three sharp breaths in followed by a sighing exhale. It's probably worth noting that my friend has anxiety and has been under a steadily growing load of stress over the last several months. Does anyone have any idea what this is? Have you ever heard of or encountered anything like it before?
im a very anxious person and i often catch myself breathing unsteadily or holding my breath without noticing it usually comes along with a lot of muscle tension and tightness / pain in the chest Spoiler: ~have you tried yoga~ levels of helpful and thus spoilered usually i start up with diaphragmatic or otherwise purposefully deep and slow breathing before i realize why because ive been practicing it for a few years and its second nature now perhaps it would be useful for your friend to take 5-10 minutes out of each day to sit and breathe, to practice so that it comes easier without dwelling so much on it (which can often increase anxiety and make the problem worse)